A History of the Jews

This historical magnum opus covers 4,000 years of the extraordinary history of the Jews as a people, a culture, and a nation. It shows the impact of Jewish character on the world: their genius, imagination, and, most of all, their ability to persevere despite severe persecutions. Compelling insights into events and individuals are chronologically detailed, from Moses and Jesus to Spinoza, Marx, Freud, the Rothschilds, and Golda Meir.

Introduction to Judaism

As a religion, culture, and civilization, Judaism has evolved in surprising ways during its long and remarkable history. In this series of 24 lectures, Professor Cherry explores this rich religious heritage from biblical times to today. From the first lecture on the Torah to the last on the Jews as the Chosen People, this course is packed with truly fascinating information.

The Arabs: A History

In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab sources and texts to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context for the first time. Tracing five centuries of Arab history, Rogan reveals that there was an age when the Arabs set the rules for the rest of the world. Today, however, the Arab world's sense of subjection to external powers carries vast consequences for both the region and Westerners who attempt to control it.

Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar

Mussar is an illuminating, approachable, and highly practical set of teachings for cultivating personal growth and spiritual realization in the midst of day-to-day life. Here is an accessible and inspiring introduction to this Jewish spiritual path, which until lately has been best known in the world of Orthodox Judaism. The core teaching of Mussar is that our deepest essence is inherently pure and holy, but this inner radiance is obscured by extremes of emotion, desire, and bad habits.

JPS Tanakh: The Jewish Bible, Audio Version

The JPS TANAKH: The Jewish Bible, audio version, is a recorded version of the JPS TANAKH, the most widely read English translation of the Hebrew, or Jewish, Bible. Produced and recorded for The Jewish Publication Society (JPS) by The Jewish Braille Institute (JBI), this complete, unabridged audio version features over 60 hours of readings by 13 narrators.

The Jews: Story of a People

“There is no human being on the face of this earth exempt from the Jewish influence. For as long as there has been history, the Jew has wandered through it, shaping it at times, riding the current silently at other times, but always leaving his mark. History without the Jew? It is inconceivable.”—Howard Fast. His popular history brings the history of the Jewish people into focus, from Genesis to contemporary times.

American Judaism: A History

This magisterial work (winner of the National Jewish Book Award and other honors) chronicles the 350-year history of the Jewish religion in America. Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores the ways in which Judaism adapted in this new context. How did American culture - predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly capitalist - affect Jewish religion and culture?

Wisdom of the Talmud

This is a highly comprehensive introduction to the Talmud, the age-old storehouse of Jewish wisdom. Bokser covers the long history of the Talmud, from its origin in the Babylonian exile, its growth through the five centuries after the Roman destruction of the Temple, and the later persecution of the Talmud. The book covers a number of high-level topics, including social ethics and personal morality, with numerous examples from the Talmud. Ben Zion Bokser was one of the major Conservative rabbis of America.

Judaism for Dummies, 2nd Edition

Your plain-English guide to Judaism. Whether you're interested in the religion or the spirituality, the culture or the ethnic traditions, Judaism for Dummies explores the full spectrum of Judaism, dipping into the mystical, meditative, and spiritual depth of the faith and the practice. In this warm and welcoming audiobook, you'll find coverage of: Orthodox Jews and breakaway denominations; Judaism as a daily practice; the food and fabric of Judaism; Jewish wedding ceremonies.

Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds

The first definitive biography of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential intellects in all of human history, illuminates his life as a philosopher, physician, and lawgiver. Recalling such bestsellers as David McCullough's John Adams and Walter Isaacson's Einstein, Maimonides is a biography on a grand scale, brilliantly explicating one man's life against the background of his time.

Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

Michael Oren served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013. An American by birth and a historian by training, Oren arrived at his diplomatic post just as Benjamin Netanyahu, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton assumed office. During Oren's tenure in office, Israel and America grappled with the Palestinian peace process, the Arab Spring, and existential threats to Israel posed by international terrorism and the Iranian nuclear program.

Torah Studies: A Parsha Anthology

In a paradigm of true leadership, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of sainted memory, embraced all issues of import to Jews, Jewish life, and beyond, spurring a Jewish revival that continues to gain momentum even after his passing. Through his incisive and illuminating Torah expositions, the Rebbe inspired an awareness of a attainable higher reality and sparked an enthusiasm for Torah study among scholars and layman alike.

The Jews in History: The Lectures of Dr. David Neiman

Dr. David Neiman's lectures on Jewish history connect the story of the Jewish people into the larger context of world history. "Joseph and the Exodus" ties the story of Jewish slavery and freedom to archaeological and historical records. "David and Solomon" takes a critical look at the kings of Israel. "The History of the Talmud" is a dramatic account of the development of the Jewish legal system amid a changing political landscape.

The Source: A Novel

In the grand storytelling style that is his signature, James Michener sweeps us back through time to the very beginnings of the Jewish faith, thousands of years ago. Through the predecessors of four modern men and women, we experience the entire colorful history of the Jews, including the life of the early Hebrews and their persecutions, the impact of Christianity, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition, all the way to the founding of present-day Israel and the Middle East conflict.

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures, and religions, and it was the appetites for foreign goods that drove economies and the growth of nations. From the first cities in Mesopotamia to the emergence of Greece and Rome to the depredations by the Mongols, the transmission of the Black Death, the struggles of the Great Game, and the fall of Communism - the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East.

Jerusalem: The Biography

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of three thousand years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice - in heaven and on earth.

Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel's recent history and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace - and the other plotted murder.

Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition

With more than 315,000 print copies sold, this is the story of the church for today’s listeners. Dr. Bruce Shelley makes church history come alive in this classic audiobook that has become not only the first choice of many laypeople and church leaders but the standard text in many college classrooms.

Publisher's Summary

Vitality floods its pages. Philosophers and kings, warriors and merchants, poets and financiers come alive as the story ranges across time and the globe. From ancient Palestine through Europe and the Orient, to America and modern Israel, Max Dimont shows how the saga of the Jews is interwoven with the history of virtually every nation on earth.

Brilliantly narrated in 1,001 episodes, this newly revised and updated edition tells the story of a people escaping annihilation and cultural death, fighting, falling back, advancing. Infused with an almost miraculous life force, they have survived the death of civilizations and have triumphantly contributed to man's spiritual and intellectual heritage for some four thousand years.

To begin, it's really amazing that such a book even CAN be written. The years of work, research, examination and detailing are mind-boggling. This book, quite literally, retells known human history, but from the point of view of the Jewish people. We move through the empires in Greece and Rome before their collapse, the beginnings and continuation of feudalism, the creation of new states and the emergences of the modern world. We have read in texts and books for years these stories, but here they are again, wholly new and re-examined, from the point of view of a small band of people, constantly in danger, who have had a completely disproportionate effect on history.

We see how they formed into a people, how they wrote their laws, how they battled against unbelievable odds and how they generated some of the greatest breakthroughs in history. Of particular interest to me was the Middle Ages, a time when Europe was wholly in control of the monarchs and the church, neither of which allowed their serfs to own businesses, handle money, or affect the day to day operations of civilizations. Someone had to do it. So the Jews stepped in and kept these nations from completely collapsing. Then one nation would chase them out, begin to crumble and beg for them to return. During this time you see the new writings and the study of the old maintain a people without a home.

That said, this is a history book, not a particularly Jewish one. It's somewhat dry at times and the narrator is good, but not enrapturing. That said, it's a great, sweeping, new way to look at history and it makes certain idiosyncrasies, ironies and confusions of history start to make so much more sense. At the same time, it's an adventure story of survival against all odds. This is a fun book, and I definitely recommend it.

A very factual, informative narative of the saga of a "Chosen People" who simply refuse to go away -- into oblivium. Centuries of hopes dashing against disappointing shoals of exile and persecution has not dimmed the will and tenacity for the survival of such a remarkable People. This book makes me want to stand up and cheer for the Jew and also desire to emulate their collective indomitable will that yearns for fairness in the game of existence in which the cards seem to be stacked against them. You will finish this book with a tear, a prayer and a hope that the Jew would someday find his Messiah Who would lighten his heavy load and grant him a well deserved rest for his weary soul.

ANY PERSON WHO IS SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND THE JEWISH IMPACT ON THE WORLD, THIS IS A MUST READ! QUITE FRANKLY, ANY PERSON DESIRING TO UNDERSTAND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE! READ THIS BOOK, READ THIS BOOK. KIND OF LABOROUS, BUT ONCE YOU GET INTO IT, IT IS HARD TO PUT DOWN.

Would you consider the audio edition of Jews, God, and History to be better than the print version?

I think it's better than print, but that's just me.

What did you like best about this story?

I like how the author tracks Gentile history along side Jewish history. Amazing history lesson here. Also the close tracking Century by Century.

Which character – as performed by Anna Fields – was your favorite?

None in particular

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I like taking audio books in pieces.

Any additional comments?

I thought it was really good if you are interested in the Jews, which I am. But I didn't get the feeling the author knew a lot about Christ or Christian doctrine. I found the interpretation of the New Testament lacking in detail and not quite accurate. Besides that though all the parts on the Jews was well researched and accurate I feel.

What a marvelous story! How can anyone doubt the existence of God, when He has given us living proof through His chosen people, the Jews. This book is very well written and I enjoyed listening the narrator. Look forward to commuting to work, even in So. California traffic. Definitely worth a re-listen.